Tuesday, 26 February 2013

I started yesterday to work on Home of Miss Valkonen. Totally absorberd into her world, and now I can't do anything else. A slight problem on the personal level as I should be producing little books for the Seinäjoki fair, but there are still two days and nights before I have to leave the house:-)

But let me introduce you to Miss Valkonen, a first grade teacher from a small town in Finland. The town is not unlike Rauma, Naatali, Porvoo or Loviisa, but I let you pick your favorite for her location.

Her house is built of wood with groundwork of big stones. I have nearly ruined the house by painting the first round with spray paint: it means that acryl colours don't stick that well... And even though I made some tests before the first round of painting, the colour was just horrible. Luckily I found a better colour from Kuopio, even though it also required some white to be mixed. But even so, the house become quite dark, perhaps it is this winter time.

The kit was bought from Tampere fair last year, so I count the house "New". It was nearly free, only 25 euros from Gepetto. The only challenge is that the house is some 29 cm high and the base is 12 cm times 12 cm. This means that the scale is somewhere around 1:30...Which means that everything needs to be built by my very own hands.

Thursday, 24 January 2013

I was forbidden by my husband to travel to Russia on December 6th, but I guess this is a workaround. No, actually the bag à la Courier of Tsar required a winter jacket. I had admired this one on Dolls' House Magazine some years ago, and now it was time to try the instructions out.

After copying the patterns, I tried it out on kitchen paper. The sleeves were quite long,but otherwise it seemed to fit.

The suede leather I was using proved to be very tricky to sew. I used an A4-paper underneath and silk paper on top, and that was a way to machine sew it. But sewing the sleeves in place by hand took twice as much as time as everything else.

The lining fabric did not like "Fray Check", so I took my favourite tool: coffee stirrer and applied a tiny amount of PVA glue around the edges. Not very pretty, but better than Fray Check. As I started applying the glue, I remembered a trick used earlier. It would have been easier if I could find a wide container where to mix water and glue, and just dip the edges into mixture. But as I was only to handle four pieces of lining I decided it was not worth while to find the suitable container, mix the stuff, dip and clean up...Especially clean up.

As I did not follow the instructions, the collar is glued to the jacket instead of sewing. But notice that there are three rows of chunky chenille instead of two which makes the collar more furry. And notice the gold thread used in buttons.

But I'm bit worried for the lady as she is wandering in the snow without proper shoes. And her hat is still to be completed...

Thursday, 10 January 2013

I was having lunch with my friend just before Christmas, and she was really interested in if I want to go back to office and work my nine-to-five (or it was actually seven-to-three:-). No way, I answered. She was a bit unbelieving as she knew how passionate I was about my work (yes, there were times when it was enjoyable...).

The discussion went on, lingered a bit and ended up to my Christmas calender. It was a moment of realisation for my friend: "No, you really don't need to go back to office, you are most able to generate the stress all by yourself!"

This story fits today nicely, as I woke up wondering what on earth I have promised: to teach a workshop on "Kotiseminaari" ( an online happening) about a bag AND to provide instructions for FOUR bags to magazine of Nukkeyhdistys. All, of course, on dolls' house scale.

And it should be obvious to the reader that the bags do not exist, except to some extent, in my head. The deadline for the first two bags is only in next week, so plenty of time left...

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Quite impressive, don't you think? It is amazing what a deadline can do to your productivity. Even though I had to admit that sometimes it also affects quality of the end result... But the best thing is that now I have a good conscience to start new projects as there is only some 24 cross stitch carpets and pillows to make for the next Christmas calender ...

House of Mäki-Kalli

Finnish country house from 1910's. This is where it all started in year 2003. Scale: 1:12.

If we had no kids?

Modern house with a couple living yuppie life. Moist damages fixed, but currently a plaything for the kids. Scale 1:18.

Villa Peacock

Victorian house in England updated to year 2030 when my daughter will live there as a famous opera singer. Photo courtesy to Greenleaf from which you can guess that I haven't started the building. Scale 1:24.

Hôtel Jadis

Parisian noble house from 1960's even though the interior dates from better days. I will publish a book about the building process in autumn 2012. Scale: 1:48.

Doll's house Association Jubilee house #29

A detached house designed for the homecoming soldiers in 1940's. No, not started. Safely on the upper shelv. Scale : 1:18.